


You Are Cordially Invited

by Maldoror_Chant



Series: Duty and Bloodshed: The CP9 Series [4]
Category: One Piece
Genre: CP9 - Freeform, GARP!, M/M, Politics and parties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 13:08:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12388701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maldoror_Chant/pseuds/Maldoror_Chant
Summary: Being a CP9 agent was no walk in the park; long undercover missions, murder, betrayals and knives in the dark. Now Kaku is the new director of CP9 and everything has changed! Now he has to deal with politicians, parties and Garp.Life was so much better when he was a rank and file agent...





	You Are Cordially Invited

Kaku expected the footsteps to go past the door, so he was caught in mid-motion when the knob rattled. He staggered, balance shot to hell, and the wrong muscles tensed in his left leg as he put weight on it. Pain shot through him, locking his lower back. Bloody-

"Sir, I'm sorry, um-"

That pitiful apology was not going to be the prelude to a life-or-death crisis, which meant that the guard had bothered him for an unimportant reason and was going to wish he'd thought twice before opening that door as soon as Kaku found his footing again. Pain lanced through his back and groin as he turned. "Which part of 'undisturbed' did you not _get_ , Corp-...Admiral."

"Aw, don't tear the kid a new one." Garp slammed a friendly hand on the shoulder of the mortified guard, making the Marines stagger. "When an admiral tells a non-com to open a door, the boy can't really argue that the director of a civilian government agency told him not to. I know the boys garrisoned here are under your jurisdiction while they're patrolling your headquarters, but us military types still have our stupid boring chain of command thingie, you know?"

"Of course, sir." The neutral mask of the field agent he'd been not so long ago had slipped over Kaku's features as he straightened. "I didn't know you were on your way. If you'd called ahead, I would have gone to meet you at the docks-" 

"So this is what you do every day for two hours, when your secretary swears you can't come to the den den mushi?" Garp took a few steps into the room, looking around curiously. Two young sergeants trailed him. The guard wisely eclipsed himself and closed the door behind him. "If I barged in on any of your peers at this point, I just know I'd find them drinking or entertaining the ladies, but I'm damned sure you're the only one who indulges in something like this." Garp shoved the dog-shaped cap up and gave Kaku a large, toothy grin. "Exercise? You're doing something healthy in your private time? What kind of degenerate are you? You're making the rest of us look bad, boy."

"Sorry," Kaku said in a cold, hard, chiseled tone Lucci would have approved of. He stood straight, without a hint of the pain he was in, hands at his side, making no effort to wipe the sweat trickling down his neck or hide the massive scars on his bared chest and stomach that the two young Sergeants were covertly staring at. 

"Just don't let me catch you at it again. Adopt a proper vice, man! It's one of the few perks we have."

Kaku had spent a lot of time scrutinizing Garp's life as a matter of course, and the only vice the man could be said to have was fathering a line of anarchists and criminals, which was not something you could actually catch him at anymore. 

"I’ll consider it, sir, once this emergency is over." Kaku put his hands behind his back in something resembling military 'at ease', and forbade his muscles and spine from locking up and spilling him on the floor.

"Huh? What emergency?"

"The emergency that brought you over here from Central HQ without calling ahead or letting my secretary fetch me," Kaku said, smooth as a knife. 

But that sort of tone didn't work on Garp. "Nah, don't worry, kiddo, this isn't an emergency, it's just a courtesy visit."

"Oh." Kaku got a lot of spin into that single word, but it bounced right off the man's brass. His two aides did squirm a little, though.

"Hmmmm..." Garp was strolling around the training area. The advantage of having CP9's headquarters rebuilt from the ground up was that Kaku had been able to put his ten cents into the planning, hence the private practice grounds between his office and the agents' quarters, for his and Lucci's use. Lucci was out on a mission, but Kaku used it regularly at the same time every day to regain some of his lost motor skills and to unwind, and he was damned sure the timing of Garp's 'courtesy visit' was in no way a coincidence. 

"Nice..." The Admiral bent to examine some weights and pursed his lips in a gesture that was supposed to mean he was impressed. "Interesting. What was it, half a year ago that I saw you and you couldn't even walk?"

A muscle tried to clench in Kaku's thigh. He still couldn’t walk without some support for any length of time; his cane was over by the door. Training his muscles to bypass the damaged nerves as best he could left him in agony on a daily basis, and standing like this after his bad step earlier was killing him. None of this showed.

Garp straightened and gave him a searching glance. "You doing reeducation?"

"Yes."

"And is that all?" Garp's gaze had fastened on Kaku's bare arms and shoulders with all too much perception. 

"I train in Rokushiki too, as much as I can." Rankyaku had always been Kaku's specialty, but in view of what had happened to his legs, he was practicing his Shigan and Tekkai to the limit. And as far as he knew, there was no law or regulation against a Cipher Pol director working on the ability to kill someone with his bare hands. 

"I see." Garp scrutinized him from across the room. "So, how much have you recovered from your run-in with that pirate?"

Kaku gave a non-committal shrug.

"Let's find out! Boys, one of you two take him on. Just a friendly throw-down."

Kaku relaxed his stance, ready for an attack...which never materialized. The two young sergeants were staring at Garp in a scandalized manner.

"I think they're scared of you, Director," Garp declared, but the steady look he gave Kaku said something different. _You thought they'd actually do it, didn't you..._

"That must be it," said Kaku, while his own glance from the two flushing sergeants to Garp said, _They should have, since you ordered it. They're weak._

Garp's exasperated grunt as he sat down on a training bench summarized the unbridgeable distance between them. Kaku, still standing, didn't care. Garp hadn't accepted him as Director of CP9 because they were buddies or philosophically in sync. Unlike those soft fools in the reformed government, Garp had known from the start that there was only two ways of dealing with CP9: become their master on their terms, or kill them off, and that last wouldn't be to his taste, as well as difficult and dangerous. And maybe the old sea-dog was wise enough to see their necessity, too; to understand that good government, like anything, was a matter of balance. The new era had decided that Garp, with his fuzzy view of humane justice and his very dubious family connections, was the way forward, but Kaku, Lucci and CP9 would be the unbending backbone behind him, always. 

"This is all very interesting, but what you do in your spare time ain't my concern," Garp said, brazenly contradicting his own actions of barging in and rummaging around. "That's not what I'm here about." Worryingly, the genial and open face slowly scrunched up into a threatening expression like a Grand Line typhoon looming on the horizon. "I have to tell you, I am not a happy admiral right now. I've got a bone to pick with you. I can't believe you thought you were going to get away with it."

Kaku's expression remained neutral while he quickly ran through the list of things he might be expected not to get away with. He, Lucci and the whole of CP9 were still on probation, so the list really wasn't that long, they were being very careful. He couldn't think of any skeletons in the closet (in both the figurative or literal sense) that Garp might have found even with a lot of digging. What-

"All the Cipher Pol directors have to come to this goddamned party the Supreme Admiral is throwing for our newly elected leader, and you're no exception. Remember, the man's your new boss. Mine too for that matter. And if I have to go, so do you," Garp ended with a grumble.

Oh. That. 

"I returned the invitation with an explanation-"

"And now it's comin' right back at ya again. A 'Sorry, can't come, have fun' is not acceptable."

Kaku didn't remember putting 'have fun' on his RSVP, but seeing Garp's sour look, he wish he had, because it would have been a lovely touch. "I'm not very good at social functions."

"Oh? I thought you were a professional infiltrator."

"Yes," Kaku conceded, "I’m quite good at insinuating myself into places where it is required that I kill someone."

The two young Sergeants stared at him, startled by the words and possibly repelled by their unruffled delivery. Garp seemed amused, though his smile was a little too sharp. "Well, just do the insinuating without the killing and you'll be a hit! Do you have someone to bring? Apart from your boyfriend, that is. I'd rather you left him at home."

If this was an example of Garp's courtesy visits, Kaku was wondering what his disciplinary ones were like.

"As a matter of fact, I do not have an escort. He's got better things to do," he answered, cool and soft as snow and damned if he was going to deny anything (Garp wouldn't have floated that if he weren't sure of his facts, anyway). 

"If you say so, and by the by, I have to say that I can't commend you on your tastes, son."

"I didn't think my personal tastes mattered when it came to doing my job. Sir."

"Of course they don't, and thank god for that, or one of us would have to bite the bullet and tell Director Masamu over at CP6 that that toupee doesn't convince anyone and he'd be better off with a dead muskrat on his head. Or a live one, for that matter."

Kaku's lips twitched despite his best intentions. The damnable thing was, Garp wasn't entirely unlikable. He had a way of looking down on bullshit, pomp and pretense that Kaku could relate to. The Admiral did his job with equal aplomb, whether it made him as popular as a hero or as unpopular as a skunk, and never looked for personal gain or recognition. It was too bad their beliefs and methods were so different. They might have gotten along a little better otherwise. 

"Well, if your only problem with this ball is that you don't have a date, I can arrange that. I have this niece - my sister's youngest - who's about your age, and she's not too ugly, or too stupid. She can't dance worth a damn, but then, neither can you, hm?"

A niece. That'd make her related to Garp, and also to Monkey D Dragon the revolutionary, still the most wanted man on the planet, and Monkey D Luffy, the Pirate King. What a charming suggestion, she'd make a great date for the director of CP9. Kaku dismissed the notion out of hand, but he'd remember to mention it to Lucci later because his partner's reaction was sure to be priceless.

"Thank you, sir, but I'll manage." If he really did have to go to this bloody waste of time, he could always take his secretary. She was no Kalifa, unfortunately; she couldn't kill a man with her little finger, and she didn't have Kalifa's brains behind the looks, but at least he could take her arm and not get sued for it. Then he could spend the evening in a corner being bored and think of all the things he'd rather be doing-

...No. That was not the way this game was going to be played.

"On reflection, Admiral, I do know who I'll bring. His time _would_ be better spent - so would mine - but we both work so hard, we're entitled to an evening of relaxation."

At this point in time, if the mission had gone to plan, Lucci would be finishing up his assigned job on that stretch of the Red Line, up to his elbows in blood and wondering why he had a faint ringing noise in his ears and a strange premonition creeping up on him.

Garp, who was nowhere near the fool he appeared to be, stared at Kaku through narrowed eyes. "That won't make you the belle of the ball. Massively unpopular would be more like it."

"Is that so."

There would be a lot of politicians at this do. People who'd connived with Spandam, the director's old 'connections', who knew exactly who Lucci and Kaku were. These men in their fine clothes and fancy offices were just as responsible for the blood spilled as the agents were, and Kaku thought it would be remiss not to remind them of that fact. Their interests were linked to CP9, after all; Kaku had made sure of that. And then there was the new breed of statesman who'd been ushered in by the reform. They would be offended to see two killers come to their little celebratory function, especially two assassins who'd done their fair share of targeting revolutionaries awhile back. A few of them had insisted CP9 be closed and its agents charged with murder, but the majority had voted for the pardon. Reluctant to deal with the mess of getting rid of the agency's killers...or perhaps they liked the safety net CP9 represented, even when they did not want to admit it. Kaku was rather looking forward to shaking their hand. Why had he initially refused to go to this party? Now that he was thinking about it, there was just no downside to this. 

It should even be easy to get Lucci to go - without the unpleasantness of making it an order - because, if Kaku's sources of information were correct, the representative from the Water 7 district would be its mayor. Wouldn't that be interesting? No way would Lucci want to miss out on this reunion. Something to look forward to. The bloody party would be so much more entertaining with Lucci there. Once they'd scared half the people present and infuriated the other half, the two of them could go and have a drink at the bar and play 'how would you assassinate him?' with the guests on the invitation list.

Garp and Kaku stared at each other, waiting for the other to blink first.

Instead, the old man suddenly grinned. It was a remarkably unpleasant expression. "Fine. After all, it wouldn't be fair to leave the other half at home while you go and have fun. And a lot of fun it will be. I'm starting to look forward to it myself. Just one thing. Whatever the provocation, if you or Lucci do so much as harm a fly or spill a drink, I'll have both your heads by morning. And I'm not into metaphors, just so you know. It's on the fifteenth. I'll see you there."

The admiral stomped out, and the room seemed to quiver and breathe again, released from his brass-balled, overloud presence. Kaku flinched and sank to the ground with a swallowed groan. His legs shook and cramped, his back ached as he twisted his thumb into a pressure point. The fifteenth....He'd have to add it to his calendar. And then he'd have to update Garp's file. The line 'really doesn't like politicians either' needed to go in there. 

Seemed they had one belief in common after all.


End file.
